Be Strong and Courageous

I wanted to be sure to update everyone on the new developments in my mom's cancer story.

Last year, my mom was diagnosed with Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma with light chain deposition disease. Those are really long words for a slow moving cancer of the blood. It is a very rare cancer and because it is slow moving, it is not an emergent situation but we need to get it taken care of before it attacks her organs. Essentially what is happening is that her body is producing too much protein and that is clogging up her organs reducing their ability to function correctly. After her first round of treatment last year (a very non toxic medication), a few of the infected lymph nodes decreased in size but generally the nodes stayed the same instead of getting better. Also, the protein production did not decrease.

Because of this, they have decided to do four months of actual chemotherapy to try to get rid of the rogue protein. If this round of chemo works, she should months, even years of relief from the rogue protein as well as her lymph nodes should reduce in size. Because this is cancer, this treatment is not a cure, however, it could give us a lot of time before we have to think about this again.

Obviously we wish that we didn't have to go through the next four months of chemo. But, we are so thankful that there is a lot of hope at the end of this valley we will be in. We have hope because we know this is not a surprise to God and He has a plan in all of this. It WILL be for our good and His glory no matter what and I am so thankful for that!

I have been reading in the Old Testament the last few months and God so perfectly worked out for me to read Deuteronomy and Joshua the last few weeks. The Lord chose Joshua to be the leader of Israel and to lead them in to the Promised Land. Before Moses died, he summoned Joshua and said to him, "BE STRONG AND COURAGEOUS, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. IT IS THE LORD WHO GOES BEFORE YOU. He will be with you; HE WILL NOT LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU. Do NOT fear or be dismayed." (Deut. 31:7-8)

The minute I read these words, I knew I was supposed to read them for these next few months that we are going to be enduring as a family. We will continue to follow the Lord and we will be strong and courageous and He will be with us. He has promised that He has gone before us. He has conquered the grave through His Son and He will conquer the devil one day. I cannot wait for that day, but until then, we will remain faithful and we will cling to Him. I am so thankful for these promises and will cling to them in the weeks to come.

Please be praying that God will get the glory through this time and He will shine through our family. Pray for strength for my mom. We are thankful that when we are weak, then He is strong. She will need to rest in His strength these next few months. (How lucky she is to be able to cling to the strength of the Creator of the world in such a practical way these next few months!!)

Thank you for your support of my mom and our family. We are so blessed to have such an incredible support base and we don't take any of you for granted.

Love from the Bolanders! :))